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Myxomatosis vs Pasteurella
Topic Started: Jul 14 2013, 01:11 PM (1,269 Views)
ZRabbits
Love My Lions!
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Trying to wrap my head around the new vaccine being tried and data being collected, it made me realize that if I am to be a true breeder, I need to know everything about the health of a rabbit. Granted my pets have helped me realize about good diet, exercise, and trust, but the thread regarding the "snuffles" vaccination really made me feel that I really don't know the half of issues of rabbit health.

No vaccines are given to rabbits in the USA. Basically the "trial" vaccine, in my eyes, is the first. I don't know what breeders did in the past, but I know these illnesses have been around longer than I could ever imagine.

I am finding out there are many disease that can morph and look like others. Myxomatosis, which is a deadly European Rabbit disease, can actually be mild to some USA state wild rabbits. Actually it's called the "California" Strain. Found in California, Oregon and other States.

I'm getting my information on this from an article in Rabbit USA 2011, written by Katrina D Ramsell, PH.D, DVM.

Actually this mild version of the deadly European strain can actually bring on a secondary infection called Pasteurella in USA rabbits. A rabbit that has this infection MUST be quarantined for 30 days (that's how long the virus can be transmitted to other rabbits) and if any infected rabbits was in a cage, you MUST torch it because it will spread and affect the rabbit you put in that cage next. Nodules will show but unfortunately for the USA strain this does not happen. You might miss the swollen eyes and ears, thinking sneezing? and death comes swiftly. Those who survive are constantly sick. The article says the most humane thing you can do for an affected rabbit is to terminally cull or should I say, dispatch.

Myxomatosis is brought on by mosquitoes, fleas, blood sucking insects. With all the rain, I'm constantly dumping water. And the bigger mosquitoes that we used to have in the olden days, are now replaced with a more aggressive, tinier mosquito. This is due with a more Opened Economic exchange. Like our vegetables, which come from all over. Have brought other diseases that affect humans, bugs for example. Aren't rabbits imported? Could there be a strain morphed due to "thinking" this is pasteurella, but actually a mild strain of myxomatosis morphing into something stronger due to drug resistance?

Would like to hear other opinion on this. Rabbits have never been truly researched. They have only been the object USED for research. Too many viruses or bacteria, that could point to something else. The article says you really need to know which one you are treating.

ETA: Vegetables
Edited by ZRabbits, Jul 14 2013, 02:12 PM.
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ZRabbits
Love My Lions!
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No comments? Hoping to hear from someone on this.

Have been doing some research on all the different illnesses that can affect rabbits.

Staphylococcus
Encephalitis
Streptococcus
Escherichia Coli
Enterococcus
Proteus
Pseudomonoas
Candida & Pityrosporum (yeast infections)
Crypotococcus (Fungal infection)

Also E.cuniculi was the one of the terms used by my Meat Vet for Neville's Wry neck. I read that E. cuniculi, although it is not know if this CNS parasite is directly responsible for Head tilt, there could be some other health issue that creates it. So how am I to know what Neville actually had if the e. cuniculi is the one thing that Vets feel is the problem. They point right at that because that was what has been done in the past.

I know I will never know what really happened to Neville. Glad that it turned out well and he is strong and healthy and alert. But what happens if this occurs to any other bunny I get or a kit turns out that way?

I truly think it all boils down to stress. I doesn't matter what a rabbit "carries" its the stress level that determines what surfaces. That's I can think of.

Please any comments or opinions would be truly appreciated. I need to know this stuff if I am to be a TRUE breeder.
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NeuBunny
Genetics Geek!
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Probably the most important one missing from your list is coccidiosis. Coccidian parasites are protozoa. Lots of different species can get coccidiosis, but it is believed each species (from chickens to goats to humans) is infected by a different species of parasite (so, for example, although both rabbits and chickens can get coccidiosis, rabbits can't catch it from chickens). The protozoan spores/cysts are very common (at low densities) in the environment, easily brought in on hay, etc. Symptoms -- weight loss, particularly over the spine, yet often with a 'round belly' - progressing to diarrhea. Young near weaning age seem particularly susceptible (older animals get coccidia too, but you have a lot more time to catch and treat it in adults). In my herd, we seem to always get a rabbit showing symptoms with the first spring thaw -- at which point we treat everybody (and start spring cleaning). Easily treated with Sulmet or other sulfa-based 'wormers'. Rabbit do sometimes get other internal parasites (roundworms, etc) which could be mistaken for coccidia -- but as the treatment is the same, it doesn't really matter which exact parasite you were dealing with.

Add mites (ear and fur) to the list of things to watch for. A pain in the wool breeds, though we've had to treat minirexes for it too. It's another one that I've learned that if you get more than one rabbit showing symptoms, it's best to treat everybody (I use ivermectin - there are other options) or it will keep getting passed around the barn.

Vent disease - aka rabbit syphilis - is also missing from your list. Caused by a bacteria. Supposedly only contagious by direct contact, normally male-to-female during breeding or mother-to-kit at birth. Number one reason most rabbit breeders don't offer stud services. Much smaller chance of picking this up at a show (rabbits briefly on the same carpet on the showtable), though not entirely impossible. Easily treatable with penicillin. Always best practice to inspect both rabbits before breeding - even if you think they 'couldn't possibly have some in contact with the disease'.

Not a disease, but on molting rabbits (especially wool breeds) you need to watch for wool block -- like cats, rabbits lick their fur and ingest some, unlike cats they can't throw up the fur balls.

Myxomatosis, which you mentioned, is a virus. Here in the states it is extremely rare in our domestic rabbits - so we don't vaccinate. Not sure why we don't have a problem - perhaps exposure to the milder strain prevalent in our wild rabbits has caused our domestics to develop immunity to it? I understand that elsewhere in the world it is a major problem and vaccinating really isn't optional anymore (if you don't vaccinate in some places, chance are your rabbits won't survive long).

...'The Raising Better Rabbits' book that comes with ARBA membership (and which most 4H clubs provide to our youth breeders too) is the best starting point on common diseases (at least for us here in the states)...but there is always more to learn about diseases. So grateful for the folks here willing to share their experiences.

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ZRabbits
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Thanks Neubunny for the information you took the time to post. Truly appreciate it.

As I'm waiting to see what happens in October regarding the Lion heads, I haven't had the opportunity or actually hold off to join ARBA. Look forward to the literature that comes with joining. Glad to hear 4H has literature on rabbits too. I know 4H goes by ARBA standards when 4H shows. That's why Lion heads are kind of frowned on and children guided to another breed to show.

What I'm kind of getting stuck on is the "bacteria vs virus". So I did a search, plus talked to my husband who is very up on health.

Bacteria is all around us. Good and Bad. They live side by side. In everything from water, soil, skin and intestines of animals. Pasterella is a Bacteria, right? Antibiotics can alleviate bad bacteria.

Virus, similar to a bacteria but has protected coat which is there to fight the white blood cells. It to protect itself for limited time if the diagnosis is correct. With a virus, the only way to get to the virus is to defeat it's protective qualities. Then the virus can be eliminated. But if not diagnosis correctly or allowed to continue to grow, the virus starts to morph into a more powerful virus. Myxomatosis is a Virus, right?

That's why in the article I read that Pasteurella can become a secondary infection when trying to treat Myxomatosis. I know this is a huge problem in Europe, but there is a strain of it in the USA. Don't know if domestic rabbits have learned to become immune to it. Never found a study but it seems important if it was mentioned in the article by a professional vet.

I'm just hoping this vaccine that is being worked on is being done properly. That the full picture is being looked at. With what I've read and actually experienced when my rabbit became sick, stating that "pasteurella" is the first thought a Vet will go to kind of makes me a bit nervous. Brand new vaccine, no real testing expect now on those who are trying it. What will happen to the future rabbits who's parents had these vaccines?

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ZRabbits
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Oh BTW, rabbits can get the herpes virus too. Read that as another reason for Wry neck. Tortosis? I think.
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NeuBunny
Genetics Geek!
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Basic biology ... skip if you know this, thought it might be useful in this context.

A bacterium (singular for bacteria) is a single celled animal. It is really the simplest living organism that can reproduce on its own. They have a basic ring of DNA, sometimes secondary little rings (plasmids) and other components necessary for metabolism floating freely in liquid inside a cell membrane. Think little water balloons. Mostly, they reproduce asexually just by growing and splitting in two. Occasionally they pass DNA (those plasmids) to each other, which is the closest they come to sexual reproduction. Given the right conditions, they can grow and reproduce very fast -- doubling every 20 minutes or so -- 1 bacterium => 250,000+ in 6 hours. They have very little protection from the environment, so they also mutate pretty quickly. Most mutations are bad, so those bacteria die, but when the population hits high levels the chances of getting a 'good' mutation (say for antibiotic resistance) rises too. Hit the infection with an antibiotic that kills all but the one mutated cell, and within 6 hours, that cell has multiplied back to 250,000+. Antibiotics are just that - anti-(against) bio (life). These chemicals get inside cells and attack the basic life processes, shutting down metabolism. Most antibiotics are very 'wide-spectrum' and don't distinguish what they are killing -- they kill not only bad bacteria, but good as well (and we - rabbits too - need our good bacteria for essential processes like absorbing water in the intestines - why antibiotics so often give the patient diarrhea). Most will also kill an array of non-bacteria parasites (e.g., worms) as well and in high doses (easy to accidentally do on a small animal) will start shutting down metabolism in the host (rabbit) cells as well.

Viruses consist of DNA (or RNA) surrounded by a protein coat. They are thousands of times smaller than bacteria. They cannot reproduce or metabolize outside of a host species. It's a subject of debate in scientific circles (has been since I was a student) as to whether they should really be considered 'alive' at all as they cannot carry out any 'life functions' without hijacking a host's metabolism. When a virus particle enters the host body, the protein coat sticks to the appropriate host cell and the viral DNA (or RNA) enters the host cell. The first section of DNA of the virus is a code that looks similar to the lead of a protein the host cell normally makes. So the host cell mistakes that viral DNA for something it should make - and starts making viruses. The host keeps making viruses until the cell literally explodes from the mass of viruses inside it. Viruses typically have a time lag from infection (getting into the host body) and the release of the new viruses. But the actual rate at which copies of the DNA is made (the effective reproduction rate) is incredibly fast, with potentially thousands of copies made per hour. Relative to bacteria, viruses are very unprotected -- just a little protein coat. So they actually mutate even faster than bacteria. Because they aren't truly 'alive' in the normal sense, they have no independent metabolism that an antibiotic can attack. Antibiotics are useless against viruses - worse than useless really as you still have the risk of hitting overdose levels that damage the rabbit's own metabolism.

The normal healthy immune system of a mammal works by antibodies (small proteins in the blood) 'recognizing' other proteins as 'self' (leave alone) or 'foreign' (tag for destruction). The first time an individual is invaded by a new protein (such as the bacterial cell membrane or a viral coat) it has to start making antibodies for it. Only once it has made antibodies, can the antibodies tag the invader and the immune system (e.g., white blood cells) start attacking the tagged invaders. This is a delayed reaction giving the invader time to multiply and 'get ahead of' the immune response. It ends up in a race as to which is faster - invader reproduction or antibody production. The next time that same invader enters the body, the antibodies are already in the blood stream ready to attack - no delayed reaction. This is the process that vaccinations attempt to jump start. The foreign protein (usually a killed bacteria or part of the viral protein coat) is introduced to the rabbit, so the rabbit builds antibodies. Then, when/if the real virus or bacteria invades, it recognizes it and starts tagging right away (hopefully before the virus ever gets into a cell or the bacteria even has time to divide once).

yup -- that was in the stack of reading material that our 4H leader gave to the kids this spring -- 'do not kiss your bunny if you have a cold sore'. Rabbits aren't usually carriers, I got the impression that virus is pretty deadly to them. Incidentally, herpes is a retrovirus -- the virus has RNA rather than DNA and a high probability that it will actually copy itself into the host DNA if it gets into a host cell -- allowing it to potentially go dormant and hide for decades among the host's own DNA.

Torticollis.
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ZRabbits
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Enjoyed the read. Haven't been in high school for many, many years, lol. Excellent post on the explanation of bacteria vs virus.

So basically it all boils down to having a rabbit with the best immune system it can build through nourishment.

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